Magnesium is one of the essential elements to all organisms, both plant and animal. Thus, magnesium is necessary for the organism's biochemical reactions. In man, magnesium occurs in an amount less than about 0.01 percent. It is therefore not surprising that a magnesium deficiency in an organism will produce adverse effects.
The present inventor believes that many disease conditions heretofore attributed to a variety of unrelated causes may initially be precipitated by inadequate amounts of utilizable magnesium. There is evidence that magnesium plays an important role in increasing resistance to disease in general. For example, tentany associated with magnesium deficiency is a well recognized problem in lactating beef cows..sup.1 Moreover, dairymen have observed for years that cows at or near calving are particularly susceptible to a disease known as "milk fever". Milk fever usually affects the higher-milk-producing cows in a herd. It is fairly well established that "milk fever" is caused by hypocalcemia, i.e., low calcium levels. The inventors believe that an inadequate supply of magnesium will predispose an animal to hypocalcemia; therefore, providing adequate magnesium in utilizable form will better mobilize the calcium stores within the animal and have the effect of preventing hypocalcemia in most animals. FNT 1. JAVMA Volume 172, Number 4, page 496.
Abundant magnesium makes the body's store of calcium better mobilized at the onset of lactation at parturition. As a result, cows which are magnesium deficient can have a significant economic loss since a single case of milk fever can cause a 3400 to 3600 lbs., or more, decrease in fat-corrected milk production per year. There is, therefore, a definite need for an effective process which will provide magnesium in a utilizable form to animals such as a dairy cow. The cows may have no adequate source of magnesium due to modern methods of feed production and the treatment of soil with fertilizers that rob the grazing lands of magnesium.
The invention assures the abundant production of more utilizable magnesium than the prior art, controlled in a way to economically optimize the safe performance of the generator.
Prior apparatus have been constructed which provide consumable electrodes in water lines in order that the electrodes are preferentially corroded and prevent corrosion of the water lines themselves.